The whip that lashes Orbis
by Ero-hime
Summary: An evil being called Shaabug threatens to destroy Orbis since some years ago. This has been kept in secret thanks to a pact with him, but for how long? Ally is new in the Maple World. She is a blank canvas. Will bright palette prevail over the dark one? Yuri/Hentai to be, but not on this chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**I love hentai, yuri and yaoi, so this story is gonna have at least the first two. But not in this chapter. If you don't like yuri or hentai you may not like it, you can read the first chapter if you want, but it will become something twisted and weird in the following chapters. I have to admit, that this is the first story I write in English, as it is my second language. I tried to correct every error, but if I forgot a few, please pretend they are not there, unless they are too serious ones. :) Finally I feel confident enough to write in English!**

**Also, when I wrote this story, I had in mind a "grown" and developed version of the characters in Maple. As some NPC's appear, try not to think about the game sprite version of them, but on a "anime" version of them or whatever you like. **

**Maplestory belongs to Nexon not to me**

* * *

"What is your name, sweet one?" A feminine voice said in my head.

I was feeling numb as I awoke from this dream-like state of mind by this voice. Still a bit confused, I slightly opened my eyes and I found myself in fetal position floating inside a bubble in a place I couldn't recognize. I was naked, and had no hair in my head... there was more people that looked exactly like me around, floating inside their bubbles, we looked like unfinished dolls in a factory. That made me feel important; I was awake and they didn't, they were like me, but that was gonna change...

"Ally. That is my name" I said in reply to this voice.

"Hi Ally, do you want to be a boy or a girl?"

Well that was a weird question! But I was glad I could choose.

"I want to be a girl" I answered without thinking about it twice.

After saying this, a pale pink bra and knickers appeared over my private parts. My bubble popped and I fell. Bye bye little dolls, see you out there some day. Finally... the day was here, the wait was over. I was so excited... I felt alive, special and willing to learn everything. My feet landed softly on the wooden floor. I was in the middle of a bridge, a small river was running under it. I remember the sun blinding me as I tried to cover my eyes.

"Don't worry, you will get used to it" The voice said, but this time it wasn't in my head, it came from behind me. When I turned around, I saw a woman dressed all in white, her hair was of a very dark purple colour, she had a hat and a suitcase in her hands "Welcome to Maple World, new adventurer, I am the Admin. Please to meet you"

The Admin opened her suitcase, and made me choose a haircut, outfit and weapon. I chose ginger pigtails, a white t-shirt, blue skirt, leather sandals, and a small thin sword. I looked myself on the river and I liked what I saw.

"Thank you very much, Admin" I said smiling.

"I am glad you like it, now I have to go help other newborns. If you follow that path, you'll arrive to Southperry. In the way you will find people that will show you a couple of things, you'll gain experience from every new thing you learn, in short: you are like a blank canvas at the moment, what is drawn on it, depends on you. I hope you become masterpiece Ally, we'll keep in touch."

I thanked her once again and left. On my way I found some small green snails. It was a bit sad to kill them at first, but once you start collecting the coins they have, it's like bursting little walking pinatas. There was many new adventurers like me around. I was a bit frustrated to discover that some girls looked exactly like me. It seems I wasn't so unique after all... Some inhabitants in Southperry gave me experience in exchange of some rubbish I found on my way, when I was done with quests, I bought a ticket to Victoria Island. On the way, I was thinking about my future job, now I was just a beginner, but that would change soon. Almost everyone in that ship was gonna become thief or magician. There was also a few future pirates, warriors and bowmen, and some people that wasn't sure yet. I liked magic, being a thief sure was fun, but reading a beginner's magazine that was around the ship, I learned about magician skills and I liked most of them, they looked awesome!

The ship arrived in a town called Lith Harbour, I was excited at first, but then I discovered I didn't know where to go... the magazine explained what to do to become a magician... but I forgot the name of the place and now the ship was on her way back to Maple Island. I wandered around the town, until I found a taxi, opened the door and went in.

"Good morning cutie, choose your destination" The driver said.

"Um, I want to become a magician, could you take me to the place?"

"Destination incorrect, please choose: Perion, Kerning City, Ellinia, Henesys or the Nautilus"

I took a better look at him and noticed he was a robot.

"Let's see..." I said. After thinking it for a while, I finally decided to go to Henesys, I liked how it sounded like, and I had a feeling that would be the place where I needed to go.

The taxi arrived in Henesys, it was a small and friendly town, but soon I discovered that it was actually the place to become a bowman, not a magician. Athena Pierce tried to convince me a bowman was better, but I had made up my mind. Bows and arrows are not made for me. She explained me that the place where I had to go was Ellinia. There I'd find Grendell, the really old, and he'd give me some magic powers and new skills. When I was gonna ask her how to go to Ellinia, some newbie arrived willing to become a bowman and she had to go back to her duties as Bowman instructor. I had no more money for the taxi, and I had no idea of how to go to Ellinia... at the entrance of the market I saw a group of people, they looked cool and different.

"Excuse me, does any of you know how to go to Ellinia?" I said walking next to them.

They carried on with their conversation, as if I was not there, so I repeated my question a bit louder.

"Go away noob" A girl with blue wavy hair said.

"Yes go away, stop stalking us!" The other girl said.

"Hey, hey, no need to be mean, she is new you see? We were newbies too one day" A third girl said. She was a high level pirate, and had a really cool pirate hat on. She stood up and smiled "You want to go to Ellinia, is that correct?"

I nodded. Finally! I got a bit scared by those two girls, it's nice to see some friendly people around.

"Well, you have to go a few maps to the left, then through the top portal another few maps to the left and you will arrive to Ellinia"

I thanked her. The other two girls wished me good luck and giggled, but not in a friendly tone. Assholes. Anyway, I went my way to the left, and found a few new monsters. I killed a few stumps, they were harder to kill than snails but that was gonna be fixed very soon. I was imagining Ellinia as a very mystic place, full of magic stuff, but it was nothing like that! It was a filthy town covered in grafitti and with very suspicious people with their face covered everywhere. I couldn't help but feeling disappointed, I had used almost all my potions to arrive here, I died once and I got sent back to Henesys again, just to find this weird and dark place...

"Hey girl, over here! Are you one of the new rogues? I have a task for you"

I turned around and saw a girl leaning on a lamp post. Her name was Nella.

"Hey!" I said "I don't have time right now. Do you know where can I find Grendell the really Old?"

"I do. I can give you that information for 1000 mesos"

"Well, I only have 46, because I just bought some potions. Can't you tell me and I'll pay you when I get more money?"

"No way. I have to eat aswell! I am not an adventurer like you, so I have my own ways to get money"

"I will pay you soon, I promise!" I begged

"Listen, you are new and you probably don't know yet, but things don't work like that in Kerning City"

My heart stopped beating for a second.

"What did you just say? Do you mean I am not in Ellinia?"

Nella chuckled "Does this look like a tree to you?"

"I... that girl said... Ellinia was on this direction..." I was starting to mumble as I got more nervous.

"Well obviously she mocked you. Ok look, I'll tell you for free because I am starting to feel sorry for you. Ellinia is very far away from here, it's in the opposite part of Victoria island. If you went to the East when you were in Henesys, you would have arrived by now. You took the wrong w- hey wait! Where are you going?!"

I ran away from there, without saying bye nor thanks to Nella. I was furious and wanted to hit something. Earlier, on my way to the town, I tried to kill some octopi. As I was adding all my points to INT, I only dealt 1 point of damage each time, and it took me like two minutes to kill one. I was broke and far away from my destination, and all the surrounding monsters were too strong for me. I wondered if I would become a magician some day.

Not knowing where to go, I climbed on a roof and sat down. There view was nice, the city shone, like constellations in the sky. It was hard to believe the town was actually full of scoundrels. There was a guy trying to reach the roof where I was, he was yelling at me but the rest of the urban noise stopped me from understanding what he was saying. Maybe he wanted to mug me... "If I get mugged, he won't have a very big loot anyway" I thought. When he reached the top, grabbed me from the t-shirt and pulled me up. He was ginger, a bit chubby and dressed in dark clothes.

"Clear off you newbie. That is my favourite spot" He said pushing me to one side and sitting down where I was a minute ago, drinking a beer.

That was enough. I was tired of getting called 'newbie'. I was tired of being treated as trash. I clenched my fists as I was really pissed off this time.

"Who do you think you are to treat me like that, you asshole?" I shouted throwing a snail shell at his head.

The guy moaned and stood up.

"You will be sorry in a minute" He spat walking towards me.

I picked up my fruit knife, just in case, and waved it in front of me.

"You may have a weapon, but I can fight too, not very well since I'm not an adventurer like you, but it's not the first time I win against an arrogant newbie" He said breaking the bottle of beer against a chimney and pointing at me with it.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, until the guy ran towards me and tried to stab me in the stomach with the broken bottle. I could stop it grabbing his wrist with my left hand, while I tried to reach him with my knife. He dropped the bottle and grabbed my arm with both hands and twisted. That made me drop it. The knife fell from the roof, now it was impossible to reach it. Before I could start worrying about its loss, he kneed my stomach several times, making me bend on my knees. I tried not to yell as he kicked my head and left me lying on the floor.

"See? You adventurers, without a weapon are NOTHING!" He said pressing my neck with his boot.

My whole body ached, but I was too angry to let him win like this. I grabbed his leg with both of my hands and pushed it away from my neck. That made him lose his balance and fall over. Then, I crawled on top of him and punched repeatedly his face. I planned to hit him until my knuckles bled, but someone stopped me, I didn't see him coming, because I was too concentrated fighting. He grabbed my fist, firmly but gently. He also grabbed the other guy hand, who was able to reach a stone, and was about to hit me with it.

"I should have let her give you a lesson first. Now stop it. Before someone gets seriously hurt" He said. I took a better look at him, and my conclusion was, that he didn't look like a citizen from KC. He looked... intelligent. He wore glasses, and a long sky-blue silk robe. Maybe he was from Ellinia! "Alex, you can't go around bullying people weaker than yourself, some day you will end up beaten! Now stand up both of you."

"This is not your business, Jay" Alex said "She attacked me first, she was in my favourite place, someone that just arrived doesn't have the right to steal it!"

"She didn't know it, and it is not like you bought that spot, did you? You could always asked her nicely to budge up."

"Things don't-" Alex started saying

"-work like that in Kerning City?" Jay interrupted "Come on, you have to be nice to new comers, most of the times they know nothing about this world..."

"Stop lecturing me! You don't have the right to do it!"

"I'm just worried about you Alex, you are my brother..."

I was starting to get bored of their conversation so I just walked away and left them there arguing while they were too busy to notice me. Wandering around, I passed in front of a big round drain. I heard someone saying there was a lake on the other side of the sewer. I went there to investigate.

The lake happened to be a swamp instead. It was a disgusting place, stinky, wet and full of weeds. There were little green snakes everywhere, I was careful not to step on them, since I was no rival for them. I sat down by the shore, the water was so dirty that I couldn't even see my reflection. I grabbed a stick that took from one of the stumps I killed before and started stirring the mud with it, making paths, crosses and spirals that disappeared after a few seconds. Maybe I should just become a rogue and be done with it. At least I'd have some new skills, and I'd be under the Dark Lord's protection. Or maybe he would refuse me, I had been adding INT all the time...

"I was a blank canvas..." I muttered "And now I am a canvas full of failure"

"Here you are!" I recognized that voice. It was Alex the asshole's brother. I wasn't in the mood to chat with him. He sat down by my side "I looked for you everywhere, you are brave or too naive to come here alone, this place is dangerous!"

He made a pause, waiting for me to say something, but after a while, he carried on.

"Please, forgive Alex, he is a good fella I know him well. It's just he is passing through hard times. Her mother died, and well... his father decided to marry my mother and he considers it an insult to her mother's memory. I come to Kerning City every other week to visit him, earlier we had an argument and he stormed out of the room. I knew I would find it there, that's when I found you and him fighting... I don't even know why I am telling you this... I just feel bad because you seem to just have arrived and you had a bad experience already. I feel partly responsible since it was my step brother who bullied you. So, if you need anything just ask me, and I'll try to help you"

"Actually... I do need something" I finally said "I need to go to Ellinia to become a mage, I have been trying to do that for the whole day, but look where I ended up...after being fooled about its location... and beaten..."

"Ellinia you say? So you don't want to become a thief? Good decision! I like mages. I would be one if I was an adventurer"

"Does that mean you are not one?" I asked surprised

"I am studying to be a librarian. There's no library in Henesys so I an planning to open one. I have read some books about magic though, and I can perform some easy spells... but as I can't use a wand or staff, don't expect something too fancy. You in the other hand, will learn fast with the help of Grendell the really Old"

"For a while I thought you were his apprentice or something, you look so smart compared to the rest of the people around..."

Jay giggled.

"Do I?! I guess people prefer to call me a geek. But let's not talk about me!. What is your name, by the way?"

"...Ally..." I muttered. What if he just wanted to laugh at me too? That girl in Henesys seemed nice aswell.

"Well Ally, fix that shitty mood now, come on, smile for me" And grabbing the stick I was using to stir the silt, he whispered a spell and it transformed into an orange and pink water lilly. I glared at the flower with my eyes wide open, as its gorgeous scent took over my sense of smell, rescuing it from the sour stench of the swamp. "Pretty, isn't it?"

It felt so good when someone tried to cheer you up, I tried to speak, but no sound came out of my mouth, I only managed to move my jaw a quarter of inch. It was the first spell I ever saw and it was made specially for me! I looked into his eyes, he was smiling at me. The more I looked, the more sure I was he wasn't having fun of me.

"Tomorrow if you want, I can show you the way to Ellinia, but for now let's head to Henesys. It's late and you need to r-"

Jay stopped talking as I hugged him. I was so grateful and happy to see him care about me that I couldn't help it. I never saw his reaction because I couldn't look at his face. He just let me hug him for a couple of minutes. My arms were cold, but they started to warm up due to the contact of his body.

"Thank you for everything" I said smiling.

We left the place to take a taxi to Henesys a few moments later, leaving the flower behind us. Even a place like that, deserves some beauty.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

She had no name. But unlike Ally, and although they both looked the same age, she had a couple of centuries under her belt. The meeting with Grendell didn't go as expected. On a reply to a letter she sent him two weeks before, he promised to listen what she had to say... but once he heard her request, he was reluctant to send to Orbis any of his best archmages.

"We train them and we give them knowledge and resources, there is no way we can send you some reinforcements for such a dangerous mission you claim it to be, even if it ¡s an emergency" The old man said.

"I don't understand. I thought Ossyria and Victoria Island were allies!"

"And we still are, as far as I'm concerned, but I would require of you more information so I can put it forward in the next meeting. It does not only depend on me"

"I hope it's not too late by then"

"I hope so aswell. Tell your master I'm sorry, and if you wish this matter to be brought to one of our councils, send us as much information as you can. I'll vouch your cause."

"Thank you so much for receiving me, Grendell" She said walking towards the door.

"Oh, one more thing" The girl turned around "If for some reason... something happens in the mean time, remember that you and your people are always welcome in Victoria Island"

She nodded, thanked him again and got out of there. "I knew I should've tried to get the support of Alcaster or Robeira first. He would have listened to me better... " She thought.

But how to gain the trust of someone, without having to explain the whole thing? For years, she dealt with it on her own, sacrificing herself, keeping it a secret... and as the time goes by, her visits had to be more frequent. By her side, a group of excited beginners ready to become magicians passed by. She wondered why Ossyria wouldn't start creating their own class, it wouldn't be easy but this way, they wouldn't depend always on Victoria island. And suddenly, she had an idea. She picked up a pencil from her pocket and a little piece of paper. "Come to the house on Cloud Park IV for a great reward!", she wrote. And placed it on one of the benches nearby.

She walked a few meters, pretending to be busy counting money from her purse, but keeping an eye on the bench. Not even five minutes later, the group of beginners that now were brand new magicians picked up the note, and read it. Their eyes sparkling while they imagined what kind of great reward would it be.

"I guess you won't miss a few of your apprentices, Grendell" The girl thought smiling.

But her joy didn't last long. Half a second later, a blur crossed in front of the group of beginners, and the note was gone. She realized it was a high level Night Lord, standing in one of his feet a few branches above them.

"Not so fast, my newbies. I'll make more of this reward than the whole bunch of you." He said before flash jumping all his way to Ellinia station.

The group of new magicians complained out loud and called him names. But they were told off by Arwen, who explained them that fairies in Ellinia expect that humans that are allowed to enter and leave freely in there, don't go messing about and disturbing others.

The girl sighed and started climbing ladders, hoping that any of the newbies remembered the address when they level up a bit more and are ready to leave Victoria to more challenging destinations. It was time to go back home, she was tired and needed to rest. When she arrived to Ellinia station, the guy on the ticket booth told her that the boat just sailed. And offered her the chance to take the Ereve route instead. She rejected, as she didn't like Ereve's boat, they shake too much and the noise of the engine is annoying.

Well, 15 minutes waiting wasn't that much. She could start a conversation with some traveler going to Orbis. But when finally the next boat arrived, she was still the only person there.

"Excuse me" She asked to Cherry, the flight attendant as she prepared herself to board. "Is this station always as empty as now?"

"Oh not at all, it's weird you are only our only passenger, I wonder what could be the reason..."

Cherry validated her ticket and she entered in the boat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome abroad..." Said a recording that came from the loudspeakers.

"I wonder if my streaks of bad luck has something to do with the curse" Said touching her thigh. It didn't hurt, but even when it did, she was used to it.

"...and finally we want to remind our passengers that they should stay inside the cargo area during the trip for her own safety, as crimsom balrogs may attack the ship. Thank you very much and enjoy your journey!"

Almost one hour later, she arrived home. She was tired and a bit sick, as she always hated traveling. Spiruna was sat on her chair, in the same position she was when she left this morning, eyes closed, and her head resting on one of her shoulders, very still. She didn't seem to notice when her assistant came in, nor she tried to interact with the old witch. The girl opened the door that lead to her bedroom and prepared herself to take a bath. She got undressed as she walked to the bathtub, strewing her clothes behind her. Then, she ran hot water into the tub and added some peach blossom fragance oil from a small bottle on the shelf. She took the hairclips from her hair before slipping into the tub, leaning her back against the wall of it. With a sponge and a bar of soap, she rubbed her whole body.

The tatoo on her left thigh was still red, an old skeleton key with a richly ornate bow, in whose center there was an eye. It was a bit creepy, but she was used to it. It would start to darken again in a couple of weeks... she didn't let her mind to sink into those thoughts any longer. There's no use of worrying if that's not gonna change anything. She'd think of something else tomorrow, for the moment, the only thing she wanted to do was to enjoy her bath a bit longer.


End file.
